CHAPTER 21
Landon Lane
MY EYES FILLED WITH RED and I couldn’t tell if the pounding sound was my blood in my ears, fists crushing my face, or the waves clobbering the beach. It was a relentless and steady cadence. Knees pinned my shoulders to the ground and the strikes came from above like a giant windmill.
“Enough.”
The pressure eased up, but my whole body numbed over. I couldn’t feel my legs. Eight years old and I lay there, nearly bludgeoned to death at the hands of a six-year-old monster.
I tasted metal and felt two teeth on my tongue. I spit them out to the side so I wouldn’t choke. When my vision cleared I saw Edmon’s face, hovering over me. The green auroras floated through the sky above him.
He shook his head. “You disappoint me.”
He put an arm around the other boy and strode for the barracks. I rolled my eyes to the side and saw Joe and the others. They all walked away. All of them left me there in the middle of the black sand.
A hand grabbed hold of my arm and yanked me out of the vision.
“Dad.”
It sounded a million miles away from the other end of the sea, but it approached quickly like it skimmed across the waves.
“Dad!”
Convulsing.
“Daddy wake up!”
My eyes sprang open. Logan bawled in front of me. His face was puffy and red, and tears streamed down his cheeks.
My shirt was drenched in sweat, but I yanked him into a hug anyway. The ice-cold beads rolled down my forehead and into my eyes, but I squeezed hold of Logan like he was a life raft.
“Daddy!”
“I’m okay, buddy. I’m okay.”
“Have fun on the island?” Joe grinned from down the hall.
I shot a glare in his direction and squeezed Logan as tight as I could.
He trembled in my arms. Tears ran down his face and soaked into his Star Wars pajama shirt. “Y-you were shaking, and I d-didn’t know what to d-d-do.”
“I’m okay. I promise.” I pulled his head into the crook of my neck.
He could barely breathe, and I wanted to absorb all the fear from his tiny body. After a few long minutes, he finally calmed down a little. Joe walked up from the end of the hallway and stood in front of us.
“Good. You need to remember so your ass knows what you’re up against.”
Logan’s bottom lip quivered.
“Let me get my son back to bed and then we can talk.”
Joe glanced to Logan. I watched him trying to work out the problem. It finally clicked. “Oh, right.” He bent down in front of Logan and reached out with the most awkward hand pat of all time on Logan’s shoulder. “It will be okay.” It came out monotone and staccato.
Logan reached back out and patted him the same way. “Thanks, Uncle Joe.”
Joe’s eyes lit up like he’d done something right. He must’ve realized he was becoming human, because he grunted and walked away.
I followed Logan to bed and climbed in with him. I flipped his lamp on and he curled up into a ball and nuzzled his head on my shoulder.
“Were you fighting him?”
“It wasn’t much of a fight. It was when we were younger. In the place I grew up. Sometimes I have dreams about it. They feel real until I wake up.”
“What was it like there?” Logan sat up.
“Logan, buddy.” I shook my head. “I don’t—”
“Dad, I want to know. Please tell me something.”
“Why do you want to know so bad?”
“Because you’re my dad.”
The words knifed into my heart like a cold shard of glass, and yet warmed me at the same time.
Joe stepped inside the door. “He’s right, you know.”
My eyes rolled over to Joe. “What do you know about being a father?”
“Nothing, but I know about being a boy. He’s going to be a man someday. Maybe the man of this house, soon.” He stopped the second he’d said it. “It’s your job to teach him. Even I know that much. He can handle it.”
I turned to Logan. I saw all the innocence in his face. Everything I’d worked for seven years to protect. It was disappearing more each day. “I’ll tell you a little.”
Logan sprang to life on the bed.
“I’m getting hot chocolate.” Joe deadpanned his words and walked out of the room.
I shook my head. Jesus.
“Dad?”
“Yeah, buddy?”
“What’s wrong with Uncle Joe?”
I glanced toward the door. “A lot.”
I nudged Logan in the ribs and we both laughed. “I’m kidding. Uncle Joe hasn’t been around people much. I’ll tell you some more here in a minute when he gets back.”
A few minutes later, Joe walked in with three steaming mugs. He shoved one in front of my face. “Drink up, asshole.” He handed Logan’s over with far more care and the corner of his mouth twitched like he wanted to smile.
I stared at him and shook my head.
He glared. “Janet made it while I watched Rambo. That guy has guts, but he’s a moron.”
“So, the island?” Logan’s eyes got big. “You both were born there?”
I nodded. “There were fourteen of us in team one. The man who showed up at the house with Uncle Joe, Edmon, he’s a scientist. He umm, he made us in a lab. We weren’t born like you or Cora or Janet. We didn’t have moms and dads like that.”
“You’re like Frankenstein?” Logan asked.
“Where’d you see Frankenstein?”
Logan shrugged. “There’s a cartoon.”
Joe took a sip of his hot chocolate. “Actually, we’re like Frankenstein’s monster. Dr. Frankenstein would be Edmon. But keep going and don’t mind me.” He had a marshmallow stuck to the top of his lip.
I stared at him blankly and shook my head.
Logan giggled. “Where is the island? Is it still there?”
“Oh, it’s still there.” I crawled out of bed and grabbed the globe off Logan’s bookshelf. I brought it over and spun it around. “This is New Zealand. Then if you go way south, almost to Antarctica, it’s right about here.” I had to tilt it at an angle to get to Antarctica and put my finger right next to it in the middle of the ocean.
“Dad, that’s water.”
“Nope, there’s an island there. An old active volcano.”
“It’s true.” Joe nodded.
“Nobody knows it’s there. It’s not on a map. It’s called Hell’s Island.” A sharp pain struck me in the stomach. If Logan repeated any of this to anyone it would most definitely have consequences.
I stared at him. “Son, I need you to listen to me carefully, okay?”
Logan’s face paled. “O-okay.”
“You cannot tell any of this to anyone. Do you understand?”
He nodded. “Okay.”
“You know how we talk about running in the street or if you see a gun not to touch it?”
He nodded, gravely.
“This is right up there with that. Nobody can know. Uncle Joe and I know we can trust you with this, I’m just making sure you know how important it is. That’s all.”
“Okay.”
I continued. “Your Uncle Joe and I, we were made on the island. They trained us to be special soldiers. For a military.”
“Whoa.”
“I know it sounds cool. But—”
“It is cool.” Joe glared.
“Okay, it’s pretty cool.” I shook my head at Joe. “I guess.” I turned back to Logan. “But at the same time, you know, we didn’t get to watch cartoons, play video games, go to school. We learned how to hunt, fight, survive on our own.”
“Did you kill people like in the movies?”
“Yes.” Joe grinned.
I shot him a death stare.
“You wouldn’t have told him if I didn’t. He needs to know.”
“Do you want me to kick your ass in this room? He’s not your son. He’s mine.”
Joe took a sip from his mug. “You can try.”
Logan looked at me like I was some kind of hero because of Joe’s answer. I put a hand on his shoulder. “There’s nothing cool or exciting about killing someone. I hope you never have to know what that’s like. And there’s nothing good about fighting. Only in danger.” I glared at Joe and told him to keep his mouth shut with my stare.
“Only in danger.” Logan nodded while he repeated our rule.
I needed to change the subject. “You want to hear more about the island?”
“Yeah!”
“It was freezing cold from about the chest up, but the volcano warmed the ground. It’s the weirdest thing. I can still smell the sulfur from the lava pit, even to this day.”
“Mmm, that smell.” Joe sniffed the air.
I nodded at Joe. “Oh, and the aurora borealis. You’ve never seen anything like it. They dance across the sky non-stop there. It’s the coolest. It’s because it’s so close to one of the electromagnetic poles on the earth. They look like green ghosts waving across the stars. It’s one of the worst places on earth, and I still miss it sometimes, because it’s like home, you know? My home. It’s all we knew growing up.”
“Is Uncle Joe really my uncle?”
I took in a deep breath. “Maybe. We’re not sure how Edmon made us in the lab. But since we were all made at the same time, we called ourselves brothers and acted like a family. So, he’ll always be Uncle Joe no matter what.”
Joe blew on Logan’s cup and handed it to him. “It’s not as hot anymore.”
I could tell that Joe had a sense of pride in being called Logan’s uncle. Never in a million years would I have foreseen this moment in our past. But now it almost seemed normal.
“Can I ask one more question, Dad?”
“What is it, big man?”
“Can you beat the Sid guy?”
I mussed up the hair on top of his head. “Anyone who knew both of us would tell you no. It’s not possible. Sid was made after us and he’s optimized to be the best warrior on the planet.”
Logan’s face dropped.
I tilted his chin up. “But I never thought I’d have a son and be able to be a dad.” I took a huge gulp of air and tried not to choke up. “And I never would’ve thought I’d be able to raise a son as perfect as you.”
Logan smiled and gave me a giant bear hug. “You can beat him. You can do anything.”
I glanced over at Joe.
Joe sat there for a long second. “Hell, I might just believe it too.”